Minority Enrollments

Minority enrollment has grown in 32 of 37 area school districts from 1990-91 to 1995-96. Districts are adding staff and programs and making changes in their curriculum to adapt.

Those districts include:

*East Stroudsburg Area, Monroe County -- Grew by 209 percent to 841 students. Minority students account for 14.8 percent of the district's population today compared to 7.1 percent in 1990-91.

*Pocono Mountain, Monroe County -- Increased 124 percent to 1,265 students. Minority students account for 14.1 percent of the population today, up from 9.2 percent. Many of the minority students in the district, as in other districts in the Poconos, are coming from the New York City area, said Pocono Mountain Superintendent David Krauser.

*Jim Thorpe Area, Carbon County -- Increased by 180 percent to 98 students. The district, which 11 years ago was one of 12 all-white school districts in Pennsylvania, has a minority enrollment of 6.6 percent, compared to 2.9 percent in 1990-91.

*Parkland, Lehigh County -- Increased 66 percent to 379 students. Minority students make up 5.5 percent of the population, compared to 4 percent in 1990-91. Asian students are the largest minority group with 214. But the number of black students more than doubled from 30 to 81 over the time period studied.

*East Penn, Lehigh County -- Increased by 61.9 percent to 400. Minority students account for 6.1 percent of the population, up from 4 percent. Asian students also are the dominant group, accounting for 262 students. But the number of black and Hispanic students nearly doubled.

*Whitehall-Coplay, Lehigh County -- Increased by 41.5 percent to 334 students. Minority students account for 9.5 percent of the population, up from 7.7 percent. Black students are the dominant group.

*Easton Area, Northampton County -- Grew by 39 percent to 1,421. Black students are the dominant group with 897 students, but the Hispanic population increased by 88 percent to 373.

*Souderton Area, Montgomery County -- Grew 38.4 percent to 382 students. Minority students account for 6.6 percent of the population, compared to 5.6 percent in 1990-91.

*Bethlehem Area, Northampton County -- Increased 31 percent to 4,063. Minority students account for 30.3 percent of the population, compared to 25.4 percent in 1990-91. Latino students are the dominant group, accounting for 3,192 students.

*Quakertown Community, Bucks County -- Grew by 16.7 percent to 140 students. But minority students accounted for only 2.9 percent of the population, relatively the same as in 1990-91.